Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-05-16
"COLD SHORT"
His Opinion Of the Wire Sail-The Demon
aliZatiOn Ofthe Nail Trade.

His Opinion Of the Wire Sail-The Demon
alization Ofthe Nail Trade.
The wire nail, which is the boogaboO at
present held mp before the manufacturers
Of cut nails, is thus referred To by Gold
Short" in the current number of the lgc
Of steel:
THE wire nail has been currying favor
somewhat, but except in small box nails
it will never be sucCess-OnCe driven it
will not draw, and to the farmer or DINER
consumer who favOrs economical practice
and desires when opportunity offers TO use
a nail a second time, the wire nail will not
do. The TOUR corners or shoulders on the
square nail give it stay, supplementary
strength and stiffness; shear them off to
make the round or wire nail ana you have
but the core left with nothing to brace it,
to give it tenaCity."
Referring to business in general, and
nail making in particular, the same cor
respondent says:
"The nearer business becomes game of
chance the closer it approaches question
able methods or veneeTed TaSCality. In
some departments oyer-prOduCtiOn' has
been brought about by the seemingly in
durable disposition of some of the mem
bers to talk about and very often
eNaggerate the profits OF the business,
and with the kindred fault, impOlitic, i'm
prudent exultatiOn, publish them, boast of
them. This was the indiscretiOn that tar
Iished the gliding which in former days
decorated the nail business. 1t begat COM
petition such as nothing but cupidity does
and soon dimmed the gloss that covered
this business. 1t is now, OF course, a
favored heir to all the mishaps that over
take the iron business, but for some years
has not come in for 4 full
share of its properties. In the
struggle for trade it looks at times rs if it
would he resolved into the question of the
survival of the fttest or, to put it clearer,
the strongest financially. With an even
start in the race, which should never come
off, the ten Wheeling district factories will
win, for they have the prestige, the
strength unequalled, and out of this dis
trict understandable similar natural advan-
tageS, and they and their predecessors made
the business what it is in importance
amongst trades.
Just now the nail trade is, as before
remarked, demOralized-sOme think ire
trievably, deplOrably demolished - but
that is all bOsh; there is a silver lining to
this cloud. The nail trade Is accustomed
to the attacks-they are periodic; directly
it will come up and be As prosperous as at
any time during the pasIiive years, but it
will never again return to the old profits of
the COS or carly '7O's, until the country
grows up to the present output or there is
some wedding out accomplished.
II have in former letters suggested d.
versifcatiOn of production, partial tran
sitiOn of capacities 10 other specialties TO
the nail men; but with only one exception,
they did not take kindly to the idea-at
least they did not act on it. Some of them
have built steel plants, but this was only
to further their nail business, they stopped
too soon. 1t looks now rs if some of them
will have to face the music and try their
hands on another key, for there are too
many nails made by a third